3-16-2010

"I often say that in making dances I can make a world where I think things are done morally, done democratically, done honestly." - Twyla Tharp

What was happening in the world that might have shaped the thinking and subsequent creative output of Twyla Tharp was that when she started her dance company- Twyla Tharp Dance in 1965, which was right in the center of the dance world expanding not only with collaboration of other artist, but world wide as well. During this particular time of her company starting out, there was many political and social events that where going on in the United States and world: The Vietnam War, hippies/peace, social and political issues, and many civil rights movements. Along with her collaborating with her company during these hard times because of all the events occurring nation wide, financial difficulty for her company was also an issue. In addition to choreographing for her own company, she has created dances for The Joffrey Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, The Paris Opera Ballet, The Royal Ballet, New York City Ballet, The Boston Ballet, Hubbard Street Dance, The Martha Graham Dance Company, Miami City Ballet and Pacific Northwest Ballet.

When looking at some of the history during the 1960s when she started out her dance company, American history was very interesting. Things that occurred were: 1961, the Peace Corps was created by President Kennedy, in 1963 Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I have a dream speech", also in 1963 President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, many Broadway plays were becoming produced like Oliver, Hair, and Hello Dolly, music was also becoming very popular(examples: the Beatles and Elvis), and the first Woodstock happened in 1969. I feel that the 1960s had a very big impact on her in the her early works as well as her works today in the 2000s.

Twyla Tharp-Creats Two World Premieres with Pacific Northwest Ballet

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txwAHpQmtSA

Professional Lineage

Twyla Tharp started taking dance lessons at a young age in San Bernardino, California. Once she was done with high school, during the summers she would continue studying dance with Wilson Morelli and John Butler. Then, once Tharp transferred to Barnard College, she studied with Igor Schwezoff at the American Ballet Theater, along with Richard Thomas and Barbara Fallis. During this same time she also worked under Martha Graham, Merce Cunningham, and Eugene “Luigi” Lewis. The very first professional dance company that she worked with and performed with in 1963, was the Paul Taylor Dance Company. In 1965 Tharp founded her dance company, Twyla Tharp Dance. Some of her early works that she had done was The Fugus (1970), Eight Jelly Rolls (1971), Sue’s Leg (1975), and Baker’s Dozen (1979). She worked with the Joffrey Ballet in 1973 (As Time Goes By, 1973), which was the first company besides her own that she worked with, plus this was the first time with dancers on pointe, as well. She also created five works for the American Ballet Theater , Push Comes to Shove (1976) and Sinatra Suite(1984) which the lead role was danced by Mikhail Baryshnikov; The New York City Ballet, Brahms-Handel (1984) with Jerome Robbins; and Rules of the Game (1989) for the Paris Opera Ballet. Until the mid 1980s, she performed as a member of her dance company. She stopped performing to give attention to her new projects for television and film, and still continuing her work with her own dance company like: Nine Sinatra Songs (1982) and In the Upper Room (1986). Some television shows/series and films that she worked with was: Dance in America (1976-series), Making Television Dance (1980-television), Baryshnikov by Tharp (1985-television special), Hair (1979-film), and Ragtime (1980-film). She also directed two full-evening productions on Broadway: The Catherine Wheel (1981) and the stage adaption of the film Singing in the Rain (1985). In 1987, she was forced to leave her company because it was becoming too difficult to pay her dancers salaries anymore. After that she became involved in other projects. She was asked to become the artistic associate with Baryshnikov at the American Ballet Theater, however Baryshnikov left in 1989, she left as well, taking her ballets from the theater’s repertory. Later, those pieces were presented by the Boston Ballet and the Hubbard Street Dance Company. Tharp worked with The Royal Ballet, Miami City Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, and the Martha Graham Dance Company. In 1992, she wrote her own Autobiography called “Push Comes to Shove”, and later wrote two other books in 2003 and 2009. In 2002, Movin’ Out, the award winning dance musical choreographed by Tharp, which was set to Billy Joel’s music, premiered at the Richard Rodgers. It ran for three years straight. All together she has choreographed more than 135 dances, five Hollywood movies, directed and choreographed four Broadway shows. She has also received many Awards and Prizes. Tharp still continues to create works and lecture around the world. She has inspired many individual dance artists like myself through her autobiography Push Comes to Shove and her other book, The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life, published in 2003.

Biography- Twyla Tharp

Feb. 14, 2010
Twyla Tharp was born in Portland, Indiana, to Lecile and William Tharp on July 1, 1941. Twyla was the eldest of four children in her family. Her parents named her Twyla after Twila Thornburg, the “Princess” of the eighty-ninth Annual Muncie Fair in Indiana, however, her mother changed the “I” to “y” because she felt that it would look better on a marquee. Lecile Tharp was a piano teacher, and started giving her daughter lessons when she was eighteen months old. When she was eight years old, her family moved to Rialto, California. There her parents built and operated a local drive-in movie theater. In this desert town her father built the family home which included: a play room with practice sections dividing the room into a dance studio (with build- in floors for tap dance, ballet barres, acrobatic mats, etc.),with percussion instruments, and more.
She began her first dance lessons at the Vera Lynn School of dance in San Bernardino, California. Twyla was a very busy child, and took up many other activities besides dancing like: violin, piano, and drum lessons, flamenco dancing, castanets, cymbals, and baton twirling. When she was twelve years old she began to study ballet. After she graduated high school, she attended Pomona College in Los Angeles, and continued her dance training with Wilson Morelli and John Butler in the summer. During her sophomore year she moved to New York City and transferred to Barnard College. At Barnard studied ballet with Igor Schwezoff at the American Ballet Theater, then with Richard Thomas and Barbara Fallis. Twyla even studied with Martha Graham, Merce Cunningham, and Eugene “Luigi” Lewis.
In 1962, she married Peter Young, a painter that she met back in Los Angeles. The following year she graduated from Barnard College (1963), with a degree in Art History. She then made her first professional dance debut that same year with Paul Taylor dance company. At twenty-three, in 1964, she formed her own dance company and began to experiment with movement in a more improvisation approach. The first five years that she had her company was not easy for her. By the early 1970s she had gotten divorced from Young and married Bob Huot. Also during this time she was started to be acknowledged for her breezy style of dance. Her dance style was detailed with irreverent squiggles, shrugged shoulders, little hops, and jumps to conventional dance steps. In this technique she would call this “stuffing” movement phrases. Huot and Tharp had a son Jesse, in 1971.
She worked with the Joffrey Ballet in 1973, which was the first company besides her own that she worked with, plus this was the first time with dancers on pointe, as well. She also created five works for the American Ballet Theater , Push Comes to Shove (1976) and Sinatra Suite(1984) which the lead role was danced by Mikhail Baryshnikov; and The New York City Ballet, working with Jerome Robbins. Until the mid 1980s, she performed as a member of her dance company. She stopped performing to give attention to her new projects for television and film, and still continuing her work with her own dance company like: Nine Sinatra Songs (1982) and In the Upper Room (1986). She also directed two full-evening productions on Broadway: The Catherine Wheel (1981) and the stage adaption of the film Singing in the Rain (1985). In 1987, she was forced to leave her company because it was becoming too difficult to pay her dancers salaries anymore.
After that she became evolved in other projects. She was asked to become the artistic associate with Baryshnikov at the American Ballet Theater, however Baryshnikov left in 1989, she left as well, taking her ballets from the theater’s repertory. Later, those pieces were presented by the Boston Ballet and the Hubbard Street Dance Company. She has always worked with The Royal Ballet, Miami City Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, and the Martha Graham Dance Company. In 1992, she wrote her own Autobiography called “Push Comes to Shove”, along with two other books in 2003 and 2009. In 2002, Movin’ Out, the award winning dance musical choreographed by Tharp, which was set to the popular music of Billy Joel, premiered at the Richard Rodgers, where it ran for three years straight.
All together she has choreographed more than 135 dances, five Hollywood movies, directed and choreographed four Broadway shows. She has also received a Tony Award, two Emmy Awards, the Vietnam Veterans of American President’s Award, nineteen honorary doctorates, the 2004 National Medal of the Arts, the 2008 Jerome Robbins Price, and the 2008 Kennedy Center Honor, along with grants. Today she is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and an Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.